


Until We Rise Again

by CallaMyosotis



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Death in the Family (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And gets discarded by Bruce like old underwear, Gen, Jason Todd Lives, Mentioned Bruce Wayne, Mentioned Joker (DCU), Or that's what he thinks, or there will be in future chapters, there's a lot going on here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29043282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallaMyosotis/pseuds/CallaMyosotis
Summary: Jason grew up not having big plans for his future. Crime Alley made sure that her inhabitants knew that there was no fame and glory for them. So he grew up expecting little and than, suddenly, violently, he was thrown into a world of glamour and hope. A world where he, Jason Peter Todd from the depths of Gotham's darkest corners, could have a future, could have a family.And then there came Ethopia and a woman with hair as bright and shining as her lies. There came the clown and together, they took it all away from him. Not that Jason hadn't been halfway convinced that Bruce was on the verge of throwing him out before that - that's half the reason he left in the first place. And now here he was, right back at step one: A hopeless boy from a hopeless city. A boy who had no future.Except that maybe, there still was a chance for him. A chance to at least be someone, do something, anything, useful and help people. Even if this certainly wasn't the way he had expected.
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Jason Todd
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Until We Rise Again

"Why would you do that?"  
Contrary to Bruce's believes Jason wasn't naive - not usually, at least. How could he be, having grown up in the worst part of world's worst city? Nowhere in the whole of the United States were the crime rates higher than in the streets that birthed him; high enough that even Batman didn't patrol there - whether because he didn't dare or because he didn't think there was anything left worth saving Jason didn't know. And no matter how much it hurt, Jason suspected that it was the latter. After all, there weren't a lot of things the Bat was afraid of and being scared of a few muggers and rapists while going up against Poison Ivy and Scarecrow and -  
Yeah, fat chance. 'There is no hope left in Crime Alley' was basically Gotham's slogan after all and even though it stung, Jason had to admit that it might be true, to a certain extent. There was no hope left for the good people of the alley because no one believed they existed and bothered to care for them. Not even the man that had pulled him right out of the alley's heart and had decided that he was enough, that he was good, at least for a little while.  
That being said, Jason Todd really wasn't a very blue-eyed person, despite physical appearance. Childhood naivety had been something he'd had to get rid of pretty fast in exchange for survival and one misjudgement of character - no matter how grave the consequences - hardly meant that he wasn't qualified to gauge the purity of people's intentions at all - and Talia al Ghul wasn't a woman that did anything out of the goodness of her heart.  
At least she had the decency to not even try to pretend as if he was nothing more than a stupid child - something Jason couldn't say about certain other people.  
"Why don't you see it as a kind of favour to your father?" Whether or not Talia noticed his hackles rising with a speed he hadn't known he was capable off didn't seem to matter. She continued as if nothing had happened, merely hinting at a raised brow. "I do hold him in fairly high regards and you certainly are a worthy choice of warrior. You have the potential and determination and, from what I have been able to observe from afar, the right set of mind to be of assistance in his crusade."  
"I'm not", Jason ground out between clenched teeth, "going to be a pawn in your games with him." Talia didn't seem to be too impressed but it wasn't as if Jason cared as he stepped closer and tipped his head back to look up at her and bare his teeth like some kind of feral animal. "I'm hardly Bruce's son and if you actually think he really still gives a shit now that I'm not his good little soldier anymore, you apparently know jack shit. And he might disagree with you about the competent part, too, when we're already at it." The last part was muttered darkly, more a note to Jason himself - a little reminder of something he couldn't let himself forget because remembering again would hurt too much to bare. He averted his eyes for barely a second and when he looked back, grim determination and pride he refused to abandon no matter how wounded written all over his face, he only found a cold, calculating look on Talia's. And maybe something that looked distantly like... approval?  
"Of course you aren't his son, child." Jason had to hide a flinch at that - not that he thought he did a very good job at that and if he had wanted to lie to himself about it, the petty in Talia's eyes would have torn down any illusions instantly. "And I never spoke of competence. I mentioned potential, still raw and, at this point, rather useless. But you certainly have got the willpower and spirit to make something of it."  
"And you want to help me with that?" The disbelieving sarcasm in Jason's voice was thick enough to almost clock up his own throat. He really didn't know how Talia wasn't choking on it already - that hag certainly would have deserved it.  
"I am offering my assistance in finding and employing adequate teachers, yes." Unfortunately, Jason didn't rule over the same amount of self-control as Talia did and so he was fairly certain his face gave away his emotions regarding that offer pretty clearly.  
"And what would you get out of that? Aside from hoping to crawl up B's ass even farther and maybe even being successful this time? And if that's your intention I should probably warn you that it's not going to work. Aside from the whole issue of not giving a fuck about me and having a big fat stick up his ass about anything and everything murder related, he isn't really into psychopathic f-"  
Jason's breath was abruptly cut off as Talia's hand closed around the front of his throat tightly and, alright, now he got why everyone seemed to be so freaked out whenever that woman was around. Or merely mentioned. He clearly remembered the constipated look on Dickwing’s face and for the first time, he could make sense of it with the threatening promise of finger-shaped bruises lingering on his throat. Jason hadn't even seen her move and she certainly was a sight to behold, her precious self-control slipping the slightest bit and making room for a displeased quirk to her mouth and something feral, almost animalistic and - Jason actually felt a little guilty at that but it's not like Talia had done anything to deserve his trust or kindness yet - faintly hurt in her eyes.  
"Watch your mouth, child. I would be disappointed to be proven wrong about my initial approximation of your intelligence." The hand gave one last threatening squeeze before vanishing. "However, to get back to your question: Beside keeping an eye on a project my beloved has invested a lot of time and effort in" - Jason contained his flinch at the blatant disregard of any relationship he and Bruce might have had once upon a deranged clown way better this time - "I do have a job I could need your... assistance for. Once you are adequately trained, of course."  
And just like that, Jason's curiosity of where this might be going was wiped away by his defence mechanisms again.  
"I won't kill for you." He might hate Bruce all he wanted, he wasn't going to prove him right about the Gargonaz-case and he sure as hell wasn't going to please Dickwing by proving him right and running off to become a deranged killer for the psychopath lady the second no one had an eye on him anymore. And... taking a life - wiping out an entire existence... Jason wasn't sure he would even be capable of it without breaking, no matter how much he thought the world would be better off without some people tainting its surface. And that was something he really wasn't keen on finding out he couldn't handle after all anytime soon. He didn't think it was something you could come back from. It was probably the one point he and Bruce still agreed on, even if only one of them believed that.  
"And I won't ask you to." The calmness of Talia's statement, the casualness of it - like it was obvious she would never ask anything like that from Jason - caught him a little off guard and left anything he might have had to say to that stuck in his throat for the moment. "This... assignment mostly consists of protecting something I am, thanks to the duties laid upon me by my father, not able to keep within reach at all times. It might very well be the most precious thing I have ever been granted access to” - and Talia looked actually fond for a hot second there which was a decidedly odd look for an assassin princess that had threatened him not three minutes ago; Jason was almost relieved when Talia's features shifted back to her apparently default no-nonsense-only-business expression - "and, despite all the faults you may have, I do know you would never let it get hurt as long as it is under your care."  
Jason's thought-rollercoaster screeched to a very sudden stop.  
"Wait a second, hurt? Like, it's a living, breathing, sentient being you have been talking about like an object or a – a possession all this time?"  
Talia had the nerve to actually look bemused at this and Jason grinded his teeth together. He really couldn't afford to lose his shit on a master assassin that could and probably would rip him to shreds with her left pinkie finger. Not again, at least. He doubted that she would be as nice as the first time if he didn’t heed her warning.  
"Everything at its time, child. Complete your training and you may know more - if I do deem you worthy, that is. Obviously."  
And if that smug tone – probably the smuggest a woman like Talia was capable of, which turned out to be very smug – and the last addition hadn't been enough to make Jason's hackles rise all over again - man, if this wasn't an exhausting conversation than Jason didn't know what was - than something else already would have.  
"Woah, wait! I never said I would accept! What makes you so sure I want to become one of your little puppets? I don't trust you, lady."  
Talia's small, formal smile turned into something wide and dangerous and feral and Jason felt an uncomfortable itch build underneath his skin. She looked way too much like the cat that got the canary - or rather the robin in this particular case - for his comfort.  
"Because no matter what my beloved may have taught you about getting into strangers' cars, the League, and me in particular, you’re too smart to give up the only shot at training and therefor staying in this life you might be getting, little bird. There isn't a very long list of people jumping at the chance to take you under their wing and if you are in need of one thing right now, it is support. Be it financial or emotional or morally and if you like it or not, I am the only one able and willing to grant it to you outside of my beloved's reach. You won't let this chance go."  
And damn if Jason didn't hate how right she was.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again to everyone who might have read one of my other works and simply hello to everyone new!
> 
> This is another work I've found in the depths of my computer and it is one I'm acutally still deeply in love with. Which means that I've been working on more chapters for months and have finished, as I always do, none of them. But I do plan on doing that, I just don't know when yet. It might be a month or a year or a decade for all I know myself.  
> I originally promised myself to not upload this until it's finished because all my other unfinished works on here are prove that I have not matured a bit from being fourteen and posting everything I write immediatedly only to then take months for every new update.  
> But since I've just had the horrible, awful, all bad-no good day of hell - and am actually still having it -, I decided to give myself a treat and post the first chapter right now. I'm ging to treat this like a teaser, so I'm not going to post any of the later chapters until all of them are finished. Which might be, like I already said, in a month or a year or a decade because I have no discipline. But I just needed to put this out right now to cheer myself up.
> 
> As always, I apologize for any grammar and spelling mistakes tha tmight occure. English is not my native language and I'm pretty sure it shows.
> 
> All of that being said: I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review if you have the time. Have a good day! (Or better than mine at the very least ;) )


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